Tell City parish breaks ground for
Catholic Ministry Center

By Sean Gallagher

Following a successful capital campaign, the parishioners of St. Paul Parish in Tell City recently broke ground on a new Catholic Ministry Center.

The 13,000-square-foot facility, slated to be completed by the end of next May, will replace the building owned by the parish that once housed a public elementary school, which was closed in 1999. It will be demolished in the coming months.

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For many years, the older building was the location of religious education classes and some youth ministry activities. The Tell City-Troy Township School Corp., also used the building for a public elementary school, but vacated it several years ago.

Parts of the old school building are nearly 100 years and the building is much larger than what the parish needs.

Benedictine Father Carl Deitchman, pastor of St. Paul Parish, said the new ministry center will be one-fifth the size of the old building and will save the parish a substantial amount of money each year in utility bills and insurance premiums.

When complete, the center will house the parish’s offices and several technologically driven religious education classrooms. The parish’s former convent, where its offices are currently located, will become an outreach center both for parish-based charitable ministries and for Tell City Catholic Charities.

All of these changes were made possible through the completion in 2004 of a capital campaign that Father Carl said reached its “miracle goal,” bringing in pledges for $2.4 million, a total that is six times the annual amount brought in through Sunday collections in the parish.

“A typical campaign is one and a half times annual giving,” Father Carl said. “So it was a real record breaker kind of effort. And it shows the parish was ready for this and ready to respond and step up.”

Dan Schipp, a member of the parish, is the chairman of St. Paul’s facilities committee that was charged with developing a 25-year master plan for its campus, which included the plans for the new center.

Schipp knows a lot about building projects and raising funds. He is vice president for development for Saint Meinrad Archabbey and Saint Meinrad School of Theology. Still, even with his experience, he was taken aback by the campaign’s results.

“I was surprised,” he said. “But I think the people in the parish recognized the need and they also got caught up, in a positive sense, in the dream that this offered, the vision it presented for the parish going forward and that what we were about truly was, as the name of the campaign stated, building our future.”

As pastor, Father Carl is pleased with the excitement in the parish for the new facility.

“I think it is indicative of the faith alive in Tell City, among the people here in this area, and their practical commitment to their faith,” he said.

Schipp sees in the new Catholic Ministry Center St. Paul Parish working to fulfill its ultimate mission: evangelization.

He said he hopes that the new center and the vibrant faith community at St. Paul Parish will lead people to find out more about the Catholic faith and will inspire inactive Catholics in the area to return .

“I think that is what is key in what that building really is saying to not only our parish but to the community,” Schipp said. “This is what we’re committed to.” †